Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Darktrace comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 28, 2022

We compared Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks and Darktrace based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: For the most part, users of both solutions find them easy to deploy.
  • Features: Users of both products feel that they are stable and scalable.

    Users of Cortex XDR find its centralized dashboard and security features to be valuable. However, they feel its dashboard could be improved.

    Users feel Darktrace’s artificial intelligence features are useful. However, they say it is lacking in endpoint security.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions feel that they are expensive.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions find their technical support to be efficient and helpful.

Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks seems to be the superior solution. Our reviewers feel that because Darktrace is lacking where security is concerned, Cortex XDR is a better investment.

To learn more, read our detailed EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) Report (Updated: February 2023).
687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Device Trajectory is one of the most valuable features. We're able to dig in and really understand how things came to be and where to focus our efforts.""appreciate the File Trajectory feature, as it's excellent for an analyst or mobile analyst. I can track everything that happens on our server from my PC or device. Integration with SecureX is a welcome feature because it connects Cisco's integrated security portfolio with our complete infrastructure. Sandboxing is helpful, and integration with the Cisco environment is excellent as we use many of their products, and that's very valuable for us.""I'm only using the AMP (advanced malware protection) which is protecting my file system from all the malicious things that might happen. It should protect all kinds of things that might happen on the servers, things that I cannot see.""The VPN is most valuable. It's the best thing in the market today. We can use two-factor authentication with another platform, and we can authenticate with two-factor.""It is extensive in terms of providing visibility and insights into threats. It allows for research into a threat, and you can chart your progress on how you're resolving it.""It's quite simple, and the advantage I see is that I get the trajectory of what happened inside the network, how a file has been transmitted to the workstation, and which files have got corrupted.""The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this product is that there is a lot more malware slipping through my email filters than I expected.""The most valuable feature is signature-based malware detection."

More Cisco Secure Endpoint Pros →

"The solution is a new generation XDR that has a lot of artificial intelligence modules.""Since they've done their most recent update, the ease to isolate endpoints is valuable. If we find one where there is a virus on it, we can easily isolate it. We don't even have to contact the user. We don't have to manually take them off the network. We can easily isolate them.""I like the centralized console and the predictive analysis it does of malware. It is very stable and also scalable.""The management capabilities, allow an IT organization to get quite a good picture of attempted cyber attacks.""Cortex XDR's most valuable feature is its intelligence-based dashboards.""It has pretty much everything we need and works well within the Palo Alto ecosystem.""One of the main benefits of the solution is its intelligence to correlate the events into an incident.""From a single pane of glass, you can easily manage all of your endpoints."

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"We are able to detect a lot of things, actually, and see what is happening in our network.""The most valuable feature is that it gives us visibility of rogue traffic that is on the network.""t was pretty as far as the granularity of what you were getting out of it.""We liked their approach to identifying intrusions or network anomalies using AI.""It's a very stable product.""Technical support is helpful and responsive.""I have used multiple solutions, but its graphical user interface is quite interesting and quite descriptive. There are a lot of video animations, and we can easily see how the data is transferred between various points. That's something really interesting. It is also quite easy to understand for a new user.""The active threat dashboard is the most valuable feature of this solution."

More Darktrace Pros →

Cons
"An easier way to do deduplication of machines, or be alerted to the fact that there's more than one instance of a machine, would be useful... That way you could get a more accurate device count, so you're not having an inflated number.""In terms of the user experience, if the UX design could be much simpler [that would improve things]... if they could make it more intuitive for someone who is not an engineer so that they still can read what's going on in their webpage and understand, that would be something.""The Linux agent is a simple offline classic agent, and it doesn't support Secure Boot, which is important to have on a Linux machine. The Linux agent has conflicts with other solutions, including the Exploit Prevention system found in Windows servers. We didn't find a fix during troubleshooting, and Cisco couldn't offer one either. Eventually, we had to shut down the Exploit Prevention system. We didn't like that as we always want a solution that can fit smoothly into the setup without causing problems, especially where security is concerned. The tool also caused CPU spikes on our production machine, and we were seriously considering moving to another product.""Logging could be better in terms of sending more logs to Cisco Firepower or Cisco ASA. That's an area where it could be made better.""The thing I hate the most, which they have not fixed, is when it creates duplicate entries within a console. If you have a computer and you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, or you upgrade your agent from version 6 to 7, it creates a new instance in there instead of updating the information. Instead of paying a license for one computer, I have to license two computers until I manually go in, search for all the duplicate entries, and clean them out myself.""They could improve the main dashboard to more clearly show me the things that I want to see. When I open the dashboard right now, I see a million things and they are not always the things that I need.""This product has issues with the number of false positives that it reports.""We don't have issues. We think that Cisco covers all of the security aspects on the market. They continue to innovate in the right way."

More Cisco Secure Endpoint Cons →

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve by offering remote management. It would be useful to look at the client's issue to fix it.""It is not easy to sell Cortex XDR, not because it isn't a good tool. Its marketing needs to be improved.""The setup is quite easy. We had appropriate support from the manager. One thing that was missing was the integration part.""The encryption is not up to the mark.""Limited remote connection.""The installation should be easier and the Palo Alto pre-sales and sales teams should have more information on the product because they don't know what they are selling.""In terms of areas of improvement, we have not completed our review of the product. We're also looking at other products. So, it's a little bit hard to tell what could be different because we have not completed the review of this product, but based on our experience so far, its implementation is quite complex.""There are some third-party solutions that are difficult to integrate with, which is something that can be improved."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Cons →

"We'd like threat hunting, and we'd like to see a global solution that can automate vulnerability scans. I know it is something they are working on.""Darktrace requires numerous configurations. It would be beneficial if the configuration could be made simpler.""They just need to work on their price. In terms of features, we are trying to understand all the features that we have. We're still exploring everything that we have so that we can fully utilize it. At this point in time, it is not about the features. It is more about utilization. We're just trying to utilize everything to full capacity.""In the next version, I'd like to see penetration testing.""I think there is some MSSP missing.""Upper management wasn't sold on the value proposition.""There aren't so many third-party vendor platforms natively integrated with the platform.""The module can improve so that every time it's more intelligent."

More Darktrace Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Licensing fees are on a yearly basis and I am happy with the pricing."
  • "We have a license for 3,000 users and if we get up to 3,100 users, it doesn't stop working, but on the next renewal date you're supposed to go in there and add that extra 100 licenses. It's really good that they let you grow and expand and then pay for it. Sometimes, with other products, you overuse a license and they just don't work."
  • "Cisco Secure Endpoint is not too expensive and it's not cheap. It's quite fair."
  • "The price is very fair to the customer."
  • "...the licensing needs to be improved. All the product features we need are there. It's just a matter of the complexity and the different offerings and trying to figure things out."
  • "The pricing and licensing fees are okay."
  • "Because we do see the value of what it's bringing, I think they have priced it well."
  • "The solution is highly affordable; I believe we pay $2 or $3 per endpoint. It's significantly cheaper than the competitors on the market."
  • More Cisco Secure Endpoint Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It's about $55 per license on a yearly basis."
  • "It has a yearly renewal."
  • "The price of the solution is high for the license and in general."
  • "The price is on the higher side, but it's okay."
  • "I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."
  • "If one wishes to work with another team or large number of users at a future point, he must purchase a license for them."
  • "In terms of the cost Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very expensive because we are a Mexican company and when you translate dollars to pesos the cost is very high. The solution is very expensive for Mexican companies. I understand that they have international prices, but I do not think it offsets the price enough for many companies in countries, such as Mexico. The amount it is reduced is not a massive percentage."
  • "Very costly product."
  • More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The price of the solution is not cheap. It is not a one-time purchase, there is a subscription that needs to be paid every one to five years depending on your choice. It is expensive but you can reduce the price by only using the services that you want."
  • "It was $3,600 a month or $2,000 plus or so. I am not sure. Its licensing is pretty simple."
  • "It's an expensive solution."
  • "It is pretty expensive, but it is worth it. Its licensing is yearly."
  • "The cost of the solution is expensive for smaller businesses. They will not be able to afford it or might not need this type of security solution."
  • "If you consider the features and the cost of market leaders, we are satisfied with the pricing."
  • "All of the other modules, such as the licensing modules, are on par. It's one for one."
  • "The pricing is expensive. It costs over $100,000 a year."
  • More Darktrace Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature is signature-based malware detection.
    Top Answer:Licensing fees are on a yearly basis and I am happy with the pricing.
    Top Answer:The GUI needs improvement, it's not good. There are false positives in emails. At times, the emails are blocked and… more »
    Top Answer:Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks.… more »
    Top Answer:Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface… more »
    Top Answer:Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing… more »
    Top Answer:Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is… more »
    Top Answer:I have found the automation and AI features to be valuable. If someone were to come in to the office at midnight and log… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Cisco AMP for Endpoints
    Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
    Learn More
    Overview

    Cisco Secure Endpoint is a cloud-managed endpoint security solution that provides advanced protection against viruses, malware, and other cyber threats by detecting, preventing, and responding to threats. Cisco Secure Endpoint is managed online via a web-based management console and can be deployed on a variety of platforms. It protects endpoints, networks, emails, and web traffic.

    In a world of evolving threats, it’s necessary to put security above everything. Cisco Secure Endpoint provides you with the scope, scale, and capabilities to attain effective security with its integrated portfolio and industry-leading threat intelligence. Cisco Secure Endpoint continuously tracks and analyzes files and file activities across your systems - both remote and on premises - and compares these events to other events that occurred before or during past attacks. If a file exhibits malicious behavior, the tool sends an alert which enables you to stop a potential threat from succeeding.

    Key Capabilities of Cisco Secure Endpoint

    • Multi-layered protection: Cisco Secure Endpoint combines behavioral analytics, machine learning, and signature-based techniques to prevent threats from compromising your endpoints.

    • Powerful EDR capabilities: Reduce attack surface using advanced endpoint and extended detection and response, threat hunting, and endpoint isolation.

    • Dynamic malware analysis: Identify and block attacks in real time.

    • Simplified investigations: Advanced search capabilities help you get the information you need about your endpoints fast.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Cisco Secure Endpoint stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to enable developers to easily secure their endpoints with one single operation using its management console and its advanced alerting techniques.

    Tim C., an IT manager at Van Der Meer Consulting, writes, "The solution makes it possible to see a threat once and block it everywhere across all endpoints and the entire security platform. It has the ability to block right down to the file and application level across all devices based on policies, such as, blacklisting and whitelisting of software and applications. This is good. Its strength is the ability to identify threats very quickly, then lock them and the network down and block the threats across the organization and all devices, which is what you want. You don't want to be spending time working out how to block something. You want to block something very quickly, letting that flow through to all the devices and avoiding the same scenario on different operating systems."

    Wouter H., a technical team lead network & security at Missing Piece BV, notes, "Any alert that we get is an actionable alert. Immediately, there is information that we can just click through, see the point in time, what happened, what caused it, and what automatic actions were taken. We can then choose to take any manual actions, if we want, or start our investigation. We're no longer looking at digging into information or wading through hundreds of incidents. There's a list which says where the status is assigned, e.g., under investigation or investigation finished. That is all in the console. It has taken away a lot of the administration, which we would normally be doing, and integrated it into the console for us."

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is the first threat detection and response software to combine both visibility across all types of data as well as autonomous machine learning analytics. Threat detection very often requires analysts to divide their attention among many different data streams. This platform unifies a vast variety of data flows, which allows analysts to assess threats from a single location. Users can now maintain a level of visibility that other threat detection programs simply cannot offer. This level of transparency lends itself to both quick identification of problems that arise and the equally quick development of a potential solution.

    Cortex XDR’s machine learning works on many different levels to detect and prevent threats. It is constantly scanning for threats and vulnerabilities. The solution can scan up to 5.4 billion IP addresses in three-quarters of an hour. This allows it to spot weak points in the system and notify administrators long before hackers can take advantage of vulnerabilities. Once the Artificial Intelligence (AI) discovers an issue or an area where an issue could potentially take place the system creates a log of the information and subsequently sends an alert to system administrators. The AI takes the information that it has gathered and uses it to assign threat levels to the issues that it detects. Following this, a human analyst will be assigned to manually assess the issue and deal with it accordingly. You can set it to automatically respond to the threat by isolating the issue while analysts investigate it.

    Benefits of Cortex XDR

    Some of Cortex XDR’s benefits include:

    • The use of advanced AI analytics, behavior analytics, and custom-made detection to detect advanced threats before they occur.
    • The ability to group similar threat alerts, reducing incoming alerts by as much as 98%. This allows analysts to avoid being overwhelmed by the volume of incoming alerts.
    • The ability to investigate threats as much as 8 times faster than would be possible with other software. The machine learning, when coupled with the unified data stream that Cortex XDR collects, significantly increases the ability to more quickly discover the root cause of a threat.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks software stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to isolate threats while enabling them to be studied and the way that the software combines all of the data that it gathers into a single, more complete picture than other solutions offer.

    PeerSpot users note the effectiveness of these features. A network designer at a computer software company wrote, “The solution has a very helpful isolation feature. If any system gets compromised, with one click I can access the system and isolate it from other networks, and then go into further forensic investigation of the current threat without compromising anything else.”

    Jeff W., Vice President/CTO at Sinnott Wolach Technology Group, noted, “The ability to kind of stitch everything together and see the actual complete picture is very useful. I guess you'd call it a playbook. Some people call it the forensics analysis of what was happening on particular endpoints when they detected some malicious behavior, and what transpired before that to cause that. It is also very user friendly.”



    Darktrace is a world leader in Autonomous Cyber AI and offers several different desirable tools available to provide a wide array of outstanding support and superior threat security. Darktrace works with many different popular solutions, such as Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS, and many more.

    Darktrace offers many different products to keep every type of business enterprise safe.

    Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System is uniquely designed to learn the status quo of your operating system and is thereby quickly able to discover any anomalies, abusive behavior, and potential cyber threats and stop them immediately before there is any threat to your organization. With Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System, you have complete transparency across your entire operational system. Darktrace utilizes intuitive self-learning to discover potential new known attacks externally and also locate any internal threats. Darktrace is intuitively self-adapting and will quickly learn the best way to keep your critical systems safe at all times, even as your business changes and grows.

    Darktrace offers an Industrial Immune System, which is specifically designed to understand the unique technologies of industrial systems and aggressively protect the integrity and durability of those ecosystems. You will get full transparency of OT, IT, and industrial IoT.

    Darktrace Antigena combines the best of the Autonomous Response technology to keep your enterprise ecosystems safe at all times. Darktrace Antigena has the decision-making ability to easily identify suspicious behavior and can stop in-progress threats such as cyber-attacks, ransomware, and threats to your cloud or proprietary infrastructure. Darktrace Antigena will provide protection to keep your systems safe and avoid any downtime or negative impact on your organization's productivity.

    Darktrace Cyber AI Analyst works as an investigative solution that instantly rates, interprets, and reports on the entire range of potential security threats. Darktrace Cyber AI Analyst uses an intuitive analysis process to investigate 100% of all potential threats. Each and every threat is rated and a response plan is created to direct your teams on the best possible course of action needed to immediately resolve the issue. Darktrace AI Analyst also handles Zero-day malware and ransomware. The automated threat investigation can work faster to develop a plan, follow issues, and investigate than any human component. Darktrace AI will save time and money by adding an additional supplemental layer of security to your organization.

    Darktrace provides outstanding enterprise-wide cyber defense to more than 5,500 organizations worldwide that rely on Darktrace daily to keep their business ecosystems running at maximum efficiency and productivity without any unplanned downtime within the overall business operation. Darktrace has a super-fast, machine-speed defense supported by the unique Autonomous Response that can take some of the pressure off of your security team and at the same time mount an aggressive fightback continuing to develop a safer defense every day.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Imad A., Group IT Manager at a manufacturing company, says, “"I have found the most valuable features to be artificial intelligence for cybersecurity, advanced machine learning capabilities, enterprise Immune System, Antigena Network, and Antigena Email. The way the solution detects the threat over the network before it spreads is very good. It notifies you of what the threat is exactly doing and gives you all the details about the execution of that application that had created the threat over your network."

    A Security Engineer at a real estate/law firm states, "The Antigena feature is most valuable. Once it learns your environment, Antigena can step in and block a denial of service attack, a ransomware attack, or just about anything that doesn't belong in the environment. It can detect any type of attack that hits the environment because it understands what normal looks like for the network. It is very useful for an autonomous response."







    Offer
    Learn more about Cisco Secure Endpoint
    Learn more about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks
    Learn more about Darktrace
    Sample Customers
    Heritage Bank, Mobile County Schools, NHL University, Thunder Bay Regional, Yokogawa Electric, Sam Houston State University, First Financial Bank
    CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
    Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Healthcare Company14%
    Comms Service Provider14%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Security Firm10%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Consumer Goods Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Healthcare Company7%
    Real Estate/Law Firm5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Government7%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise46%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise58%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business49%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise52%
    Buyer's Guide
    EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business)
    February 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and others in EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business). Updated: February 2023.
    687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is ranked 4th in EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) with 42 reviews while Darktrace is ranked 1st in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) with 34 reviews. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is rated 8.2, while Darktrace is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks writes "Easy to set up, reliable, and always scanning". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Darktrace writes "Advanced Cybersecurity Artificial Intelligence, plenty of features, and impressive threat detection". Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, Symantec Endpoint Security and Check Point Harmony Endpoint, whereas Darktrace is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, Cisco Secure Network Analytics, Vectra AI and ExtraHop Reveal(x).

    We monitor all EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.